Well, I start to tell my story.  Cars rush up to us, lights flashing.  Men get out, bullhorn in one’s hand and guns in the hands of others.

Ten - Game Day

A fantasy adventure set in a strange indoor universe, inhabited by puppets, which is told in the form of a child's book report that keeps wandering off the topic...

Silver Blood-Epilogue
As we lifted away from the now burning city, I heard a voice emit from a solitary figure in the back, "Well done, but there are questions to be answered."

Wow, the way things happen.  So Raphael knows some people.  He’s been around.  He’s a surprising surprise.  Quite the cosmopolitan.  He has been helpful.
We are looking over the digs when men come up and talk with Jacques.  Jacques comes over with them.  They have uniforms on.

“Mon Dieu!” Raphael exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“La Mer Morte.”
”The Dead Sea?”  Chloe asked.
“Quite so,” Raphael said emphatically.  “Look at those!!  It’s a total row of doors!”
“Yes,” I said.
Raphael moved closer to inspect.

“We were nothing too.”
“Nothing, too.”
“Nothing too.”
“But you’re not nothing.”
“Nothing exists in the Nothing.”
“Okay,” I said, “let me show you.”  And I pulled the door out of my pocket.

We sit down at Raphael’s restaurant, at a sidewalk table.
“Won’t somebody notice “Pierre” there?”  Asks Chloe.

Nine – Preparations

The Children of Lilith

“Raff!” shouts the sales clerk, “Comment allez vous?”
“Tres bien,” Raphael replies, “Est-ce que tu connais mes amis?”
“Un peu. Porquois ils et tu entre sans habiillement?”
“Long story,” Raphael replies.
Then he turns to me.

                   SKIDS AND DIGGER

TWO TALES OF AMERICAN BOYHOOD... 

Eight – Second thoughts

The disappearance of a local high school girl has been on the news for several days now. A compact disk arrives at the police station relating a grotesque and utterly unbelievable tale. Is it the product of a deranged imagination or a factual account of an all-too-real horror lying just outside of our known reality?

FLESH

Seven – The Shock

...Even more strange, she’d just spent at least half an hour in the presence of other people without shouting at anyone, without cursing, without really thinking at all about not being able to see. Just what was she really feeling?

----

Excerpts from a longer work:

The Canyon Sketches
(An Irreverent History)

Let's shift gears a little and look at events from Amanda's point of view. Let me know if you like the shift in focus. 

Six – Life Sucks

Nobody’s watching as I look around to see if anybody’s watching.  There’s the door.  Here I am.  There’s everybody else. 

Hoodwink

by Joyce Melton

“That is quite all right,” Chloe replies, “I think we should consider other matters.”

Okay, I may have stepped a little over the science fiction line in this story, but I am headed in a certain direction and I hope there aren't too many objections. 

Sometimes something you do on impulse, without stopping to think about it, has a huge impact on your life. Sometimes that impact is even positive.

This chapter has a scene with a mild sexual situation. If that disturbs you I'm sorry but I felt it was important to the plot. Remember how things can change in the course of a weekend when you are a teenager?

Amanda's Eyes - Chapter Three  – Plans

Hey!  Says Raphael, How come people are looking for you?

I really don’t know – you’d have to ask them.

I asked one guy once and he looked at me in such a way that I never asked the question again.

Did he say anything?

He needs community service credit to graduate from High School. She recently lost her sight and is having trouble dealing with her disability. His description of her, "She's about as friendly as a razor wire fence." Her description of him, "I can tell by the smell that it's the same pile of crap again today." Sounds like a perfect match doesn't it?

What the?